All the Way Down
by frannyandfranny
Summary: Remus finds a strange rescuer after a drunken stumble into a bar bathroom. Slash Severus/Remus
1. I

**All the Way Down**

**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** RL/SB RL/SS  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters  
**Warnings: **WIP, slash

Part I.

_"The sun unaccustomed to anything else _

_goes all the way down" _  
–Anne Sexton "Lament

Remus felt warm in his bar booth pressed, perhaps too tightly between Sirius Black's queasy-knee-dragon-hide-clad thigh and one nameless Ravenclaw's severely unclad tanned legs. Legs that were spilling from a skirt that was surely not a inch beneath her fingertips as Professor McGonagall would have enforced. The former of which was inching itself closer to Remus's own thin thigh as the night drug on.

The tawny haired man was sure that there must have also been people he knew on the other side of the booth, but at the moment he couldn't recall, or think to recall. He had been drug from his flat hours before by a loud persuasion by Sirius.

"We don't get enough reasons to celebrate anymore" Sirius pleaded to his friend who looked up from a book with disinterest.

"Take James" Remus offered. He never did well in social scenes outside of a dim-lit coffee house with a friend or two.

Sirius's cause for celebration was the breaking story of several Death Eaters capture in a sweeping Auror counter-attack earlier in the day. The black haired man's optimism couldn't be shaken by Remus's feigned boredom with his friend. Sirius threw Remus a look.

"You know James never comes out anymore."

Remus's head rolled onto Sirius's shoulder.

"Wake up there Moony, the band is coming back on" Sirius ran his hand through Remus's thick hair before pressing a sloppy kiss onto his forehead.

Remus grinned widely into Sirius's shoulder-length hair. He didn't remember having more than two firewhiskeys.

"Oh Remy, you're so sweet tonight!" The girl pressed her own lips to Remus's cheek as she snaked a thin arm beneath his drooping cardigan. Remus could feel the beat of the bass, and Sirius's head bobbing up as vividly relived a Quidditch game with someone across the table, he could feel his inner thigh being stroked by bony fingers, he could feel his stomach churning.

"Bathroom" he whispered into Sirius's ear, before running his tongue over his friend's earlobe with a giggle.

"One second mate" Sirius said, while shoving his unbalanced friend---with his hand not being used to down another round of firewhiskey--into the lap of the willing girl on his right.

"Moony could never hold his liquor" Sirius explained to someone still sitting straight.

"Aw Rem, get up, I'll take you to the bathroom" the girl purred, running her hands through his sweaty drenched hair.

"Padfoot…" Remus requested into what was becoming a dimmer and dimmer lit bar.

He shrugged off the attempts of the girl to hold his hand as he stood unsteadily. He made eye contact with his friend who had his lips pressed against some girl, or boy, Remus couldn't tell.

He'd walk home, he resolved, feeling a sudden surge of misplaced anger—right after he went to the bathroom. He stumbled to a stall, which was empty, but he didn't have time to notice. He held onto his stomach for a few minutes on the cool tiled floor and closed his eyes.

"We've all had nights like that buddy!" Someone called from what felt like miles above him, throwing down a wet paper towel. Oh, he had puked.

"You puked"

"I made it to the bathroom" Remus said proudly with a smirk.

"No, Lupin, you puked on my boots" came a voice again, but how did the man know he name. Remus giggled.

A pair of heavy heeled lace up boots appeared on either side of his head. Remus looked with great interest at the laces, which were tied tight in exact knots.

"Get up" the man commanded, with some sort of attitude Remus couldn't analyze from the ground. He shook his head against the floor, which was really, just as supportive of his vulnerable state as Sirius had been. Two hands grabbed Remus by the waist and hoisted the shaking man to his own body. Remus wondered how long he had been shaking.

"Hullo Snape" Remus smiled, trying to remember if there was some reason to be afraid of the taller man.

There had been rumors that the man who had been infatuated with dark arts throughout school had fallen in with Death Eaters. Despite Remus's sober opinions of the man's allegiance, at this moment Remus couldn't find a single doubt in his mind of the man's innocence.

"You're good" Remus said proudly while pointing a finger between Severus's heavy lidded eyes.

"What makes you so sure?" Severus looked down at the man with curiosity, seemingly forgetting his previous urgency.

"Oh," Remus smiled lazily "because I love you" he said into Severus's black robes.

"You've been poisoned" Severus explained coolly after what felt like too long of a pause.

"No, I really do" Remus protested with a giggle, trying to lift his head, which heavily felt glued to Severus's shoulder.

"We need to get out of here."

Remus thought that he heard someone screaming from the other side of the wall before he felt a familiar tug at his naval.


	2. II

**All the Way Down**

Part II.

_We enter touch entirely. No one's alone._

--Anne Sexton "The Truth the Dead Know"

Remus felt a familiar tugging at his naval just as he began hearing the alarm sound of screaming and glass breaking coming from the other side of the bathroom wall.

He mumbled incoherently into Severus's robes as the couple reappeared in a small dark hotel room. Severus helped the shaking smaller man sit onto the room's only bed and gently eased him down.

Remus tried to move his head to look around the cluttered room, but found the task nearly impossible. The apparition had left his head stuffed with cotton. It was a feat in itself to pull any distant thought through the thick fog in his head. With a growing concern he tried to concentrate on the sound of Severus's purposeful footsteps and frantic movements around him.

"Drink this" Severus instructed, pushing a vial to Remus's lips as he carefully tilted the man's head back. If Remus wanted to protest, he couldn't.

Satisfied that the werewolf had ingested all the potion, Severus allowed himself a moment to slump into the lumpy bed next to his sick companion. Remus's head lie curled into his chest and his hair lie on the sheets in damp clumps. Severus placed his thin fingers onto the sleeping man's shoulders until the unnerving jerky shaking of Remus's arms and hands subsided. He listened to the other man's breathing as he drug slowly on a cigarette he had retrieved from the end table pressed against he bed.

After a few silent moments, he rose from the bed and glanced into the bathroom mirror with a dissatisfied sneer before disappearing from the apartment with a quiet pop.

Remus couldn't be sure how much time he had slept when he woke. The only concern he wanted to address getting warm. He concentrated with growing clarity on the fog retreating from his mind. His skin was clammy and he wanted to bury himself more in the unfamiliar bed. Before realizing, with every minute that passed, exactly how unfamiliar the bed was. He quickly tried to assess his last memories, but the mere action hurt his head.

There was a girl he had been vaguely introduced to by Sirius. Sirius. Sirius kissing someone. He groaned softly into the mattress. His slow frustration at his momentary blackout was quickly growing into frantic alarm. He propped himself on his elbow and assessed his surroundings. No nameless lover, that was good. Maybe, his unconscious chided him, he noted with annoyance.

He turned on the lamp next to the bed and took in his surroundings. The small space was cluttered with newspaper and vials. There were pillows and sheets lying on the floor next to open textbooks and half full tea cups, and the lingering smell of alcohol beneath it all.

* * *

Severus Snape strode through the deafening club with expert intent. An emaciated green haired singer screamed into a microphone while floating above the hands of a comparatively dressed audience. Severus weaved his way through the thick crowd to the bar.

He frowned in recognition of what he had come for. Striding confidentially up to the crowded bar he pushed on the shoulders of a stylish young man and spun him around.

"What the hell is going on." He spit into the face of the man who may have been handsome if his eyes hadn't been coated in mounds of eyeliner.

"Sev!" The man said as he dove into Severus's chest for a hug.

"You never take me up on my invites! You'll be glad you came," the man's blue eyes ran over Severus's thin figure, "and look how sexy," he finished with a smirk.

"No Regulas. Listen to me," Severus spoke urgently in his deep monotones into the man's ear. The younger man sobered quickly.

"I'll take care of it" Regulus responded softly into his drink. Severus nodded; knowing the man well enough to be confident of that he was serious.

* * *

"Fuck" he said as he reappeared in his apartment. Remus was laying unsteadily on a pile of text books in the center of the hotel room.

"Off the spine Lupin!" He commanded, casting a concerned glance to his manual on magical unwater herbs, as he hulled the wobbling man to his feet.

"What the fuck is going on Snape" Remus commanded roughly with more confidence that he could back without full control of his limbs.

Severus half carried the man to a nearby chair.

"You can't remember?" Severus asked, rising an eyebrow as Remus glared suspiciously. The tawny haired man reluctantly shook his head, but the glare remained.

"You had too much to drink Lupin," Severus divulged with a long sigh, "You practically begged me to allow you to come back with me. And since I'm in no way that desperate, I graciously allowed you sleep it off," Severus finished, digging in his pocket for a cigarette.

"Bullshit," Remus managed to say with more certainly than he could feel.

"I don't have time for this" Severus responded, placing a cigarette to his lips and lighting it.

"Where is Sirius?" Remus asked, suddenly remembering his companion.

"I'm not Black's keeper" Severus sneered as he blew smoke. The dark eyed man turned the lights on in the messy room with a flick of his wand.

"I want to leave now." Remus said with as much composure as he could muster.

"No," Severus replied striding across the room and put a kettle on the stove, "Absolutely not."


End file.
